


pink

by parkneroses



Series: Harley Keener and his Hello Kitty Pajama Pants [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: But very fluffy, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fluff, Harley Keener Needs a Hug, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, just harley's dad stuff yanno, lower case intentional, mild angst but like not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-12-07 16:17:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20978789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parkneroses/pseuds/parkneroses
Summary: harley’s favourite colour had always been pink.





	pink

harley’s favourite colour had always been pink.

he was six years old when he found his favourite shirt, a salmon coloured henley with three grey buttons, sitting in a box labelled “charity” in his father’s office. when he had asked what the word meant and why his shirt was in a box, his father had curtly replied, “it means we’re giving it away to someone else. you’re getting older harley, and people aren’t going to assume your mother dresses you anymore. you need to learn how to dress like a man. pink is a girl’s colour.” harley wasn’t upset so much as he was confused. what made a colour a girl’s colour?

he remembered the time in school when mrs pacinto had told him that to practise mixing colours, he had to use more than just pink in his painting. he remembered how he had gotten so carried away with himself, because who knew mixing red and white together made the same colour as the flowers abbie planted in the garden! his father hadn’t said anything about red being a girl’s colour, or white for that matter. so how was pink suddenly something different?

after his father left, he stopped thinking about it.

until one day, harley keener, newly-seven, with three missing teeth and always the widest smile to prove it, decided to bring a new friend home. they watched a movie, played some some games and had dinner. it was going great until harley realised he’d forgotten to show his new friend his bedroom.

he’d wondered that night what he’d done so wrong. what could possibly be so wrong with having pink sheets on his bed? and what on earth did “gay” mean? after the other boy had stormed out in disgust to go home, harley had cried to his mom. she wouldn’t tell him what the word meant, but that night before bed she switched the sheets with abbie’s forest green ones. she never told him why.

it was just a colour. why did everyone have to get so worked up over it?

harley didn’t think he liked boys. he was twelve now, nearly a teenager, and he had never even had a crush. all the boys in his school grew mean or gross as they approached their teens. not only in appearance, but in attitude and demeanour too. calling him “gay” because he coloured his diagram of the water cycle with different shades of pink instead of greys, blues and greens. so screw him, it was a pretty colour. he had never quite understood the issue with it and nor, quite frankly, did he ever want to.

that night on his way home from school, harley gathered up what was left of his homework money (it was the only way macy could get him to do it- 50 cents a subject. they were all boring and easy anyway) and his babysitting money (from watching the garcia twins next door and their dog alfie for basically a whole summer) and counted it. sixty dollars and forty-three cents. enough for what he wanted.

he ripped a hole in his _work pants_ (read: abbie’s old hello kitty pajama pants he wore when he was doing something messy) while jumping on his bed to try and get the curtain rod back on its pole. the golden rays of the eight pm sunset streamed through the vast expanse of blush pink fabric suspended in front of them, bathing the room in a peachy warmth and calm harley hadn’t felt in a while. when macy came into his room that night to check if he’d done his homework, she didn’t say anything about the change in decor. she didn’t have to.

harley’s favourite colour had always been pink. it was warm, and safe, and reminded him of all his favourite things in life. it was the peonies on the kitchen windowsill, abbie’s schoolbag laying discarded on her bedroom floor. it was an earthworm on the sidewalk trying to explore the world around it, the donuts in the window of the bakery beside the school, and the bubblegum he chewed to calm his nerves when he’d had a long day.

it was the colour of peter’s rosy cheeks when harley had confessed his crush, the colour of peter’s shirt on their first date and the colour of the sky on a cold night in new york city when he had first told his soulmate “i love you” and heard it back.

it was the colour of the stone on the silver ring the night peter told him yes.

harley’s favourite colour had always been pink, and nothing in the world could ever change that.


End file.
